~ Researching Russell Co, Kentucky

Category Archives: Military

Memorial Day is a time to remember and honor ancestors who served the United States in the military. Today, I would like to honor 2 of my great-uncles: Arthur Bennett and Link Bennett. They were my mother’s uncles and they were very dear to her heart.

Arthur Alexander Bennett (1919 – 2004) who served in the Army during WWII and the Korean War

Arlus (Albert) Link Bennett (1922 – 2003) who served in the Marines during WWII

I was able to spend a couple of hours yesterday at the library and I was able to look at a book called Record of abstracts, pension records; soldiers of the revolutionary war and 1812 war, who settled in Mercer County, Kentucky, Harrodsburg (the county seat) by Annie Walker Burns. In that book, there was a list of widows who had applied for pensions, which war and the date the pension was allowed. Nancy Smith, widow, War of 1812 was granted her pension in the 1860’s.

I think this may rule out the 1812 John M. Smith as I believe my John’s wife passed away before John did. John left no will, but in the various records records created after his death, a wife is never mentioned.

But perhaps I’m being too closed minded. If Nancy Smith lived in Mercer County when the pension was granted (which is an assumed requirement for being in the book), does that mean that she moved BACK to Mercer County – perhaps to be with family – after John’s death? Would that be preferable to a widow at this point of history over living with her children? I feel like that would be unusual. On the other hand, all of John’s children had passed away by the mid 1850’s except for one – my ancestor, the oldest son, George A. Smith, who didn’t pass away until 1890. And maybe the book wasn’t compiled based on LIVING in Mercer County at the time of the pension application, but maybe living in Mercer County DURING the war was the requirement.

Either way, I did a search for Nancy Smith in the 1850 and 1860 census for Mercer County and for Russell County (and for Wayne County since their land was right on the county line) and I didn’t find anyone of the right age. I supposed she could have remarried….

I’ve order 5 FHL films for Mercer County. Maybe those will shed some light one way or the other.

The book snippet that I posted yesterday mentioned John M. Smith followed by Nancy Smith. I think this pension card from the was of 1812 is certainly them, I just don’t know if they’re mine! I found this on the Fold3 web site, but the file itself has not yet been scanned. I know NOTHING about research from this war…

I have begun the process of transcribing the pension file for William Smith of Russell County, Kentucky to see if I can find a connection with my family: my grandfather Herman Smith > Oliver Houston Smith > Elias Smith > George A Smith > John M. Smith. My plan is to make a timeline of this man’s life and use it as a “map” to look for records for John M. Smith. This is more “shot in the dark” researching than anything as the only thing that I have to connect these families is the common surname of Smith and location of Russell County. I decided to post this on my blog so that if there is another Russell County researcher looking for information on this family, they might benefit from this transcription.

This record mentions Amelia Co, Virginia; Halifax Co, Virginia; Cumberland County, Kentucky; Pulaski County, Kentucky and finally Russell County, Kentucky.

State of Kentucky Russell

County and Circuit

On this 2nd day of November 1832 personally appeared before the Honble John L Bridges sole Judge in and for the circuit aforesaid (now seeing) William Smith a resident of the County of Russell state of Kentucky age 76 years who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress passed the 7th Jun 1832 That he entered the service of the (united) under Capt Joshua Powel as a drafted militia man in the month of (blank) in the year 1780 in the County Amelia state of Virginia he was marched on to Richmond from there to North Carolina scouting about after the tories he was not marched to any regular troop during this tour they were occasionally joined by other militia companies but the time has been so long he does not recollect their names he served faithfully three months being the time for which he was drafted he was then honorably discharged and returned home, and after some time he was again drafted for three months and again entered the service under the same Capt and was principally engaged after the tories the first part of the tour being marched on to Carolina still under the command of Capt Powell after a part of the time he returned to Virginia and was attached to a part of General Lawsens Brigade he does not recollect the officer who commanded but they were detached of and had a severe engagement near Charlotte Courthouse. This was the only battle he was in he served out the full term of his engagement 3 months and was discharged __ after being at home a short time was again drafted for three months and entered the service under the same Capt and was marched on and joined General Washington’s army near York where he remained until after the surrender of Cornwallis he recollects of no important event other the surge of York the surrender of Cornwallis he was with the army from the time he first (formed) until nearly the time his service ended he was marched on homeward & his term expired and he was discharged his first tour was in the year 1780 he thinks about April the second and third in the year 1781 but does not recollect the months which he so entered except the first he further states that he did not receive a written discharge for either of his tours His Capt was his neighbor and supposes from that circumstance it was thought unnecessary nor has had any documentary evidence of his service nor does he know of at this time any person by whose testimony he can establish the same. He was born in the Amelia County state of Virginia on the 5 day of May 1756 according to the statement of his parents tho he has no register of his age but he doubts not the correctness of his parents statement he remained in Amelia he does not recollect the precise time but moved from there to Halifax County Virginia where he remained until 1810 when he moved to Kentucky and settled in Cumberland County where he remained some time then moved to Pulasky same state and after many years residents there moved to Russell where he now lives he hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state sworn to and subscribed the day and year.

(I had originally posted this blog on February 7 and within hours, received a packet of information in the mail that changed the ancestor I was going to research. So I removed the post to take some time with the new information. I now feel confident that the information I received was wrong, so I’m moving forward with my original plan.)

I’m always surprised that no matter how thoroughly I think I’ve read some document, I always seem to find something new whenever I transcribe it or even when I try to plug information into some new format like a timeline.

I have confirmed my Smith line back to John M. Smith who died in Russell County, Kentucky in 1835. Some researchers claim that John was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, but I can find no records that would prove this. There is a William Smith who DOES have a pension file from Russell County, Kentucky. So can I connect these two men? Normally, we research backward through time. But since I can’t seem to get from John to William, can I try to work forward and prove that John is a son of William?

So far, I’ve had no luck with that. Basically, I have 4 records or record types to rely on. The pension file itself – which is 73 pages long, the will, tax records and deeds. And I feel that I’ve found an amazing amount of information from those things, but so far, no connection. But I’m not ready to say that John was NOT William’s son. So I’ve decided to start transcribing and if I’m going to take the time to do that, then I’m going to post it on my blog!

So I don’t know how often they’ll appear, but they will appear! And of course, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of commentary to add as well! I’m going to start a “William Smith” category so that if anyone is interested in following the conversation, you can always click on that to see the entire progression.

So I’ll start with the card in the front of the Pension File.

Service: VANames: William Smith and ElizabethNumber: W9298 – B.L. Wt. 50890-160-55 (I believe these are Bounty Land Warrant Numbers. Something new to research!)

Later in the pension packet, a summary letter written to a researcher says that several different dates of marriage were given: Oct. 16, 1787, 1790 November 8, 1792 or 1793 and I’m sure that’s part of the unreadable stuff.

This little card has parts that are very clear and easy to read. The words under the “contents” are very faded and difficult to read. I opened it in Photoshop and did what I could to read those words, and most were not difficult, but others would not come through.

I recently decided to re-examine a military pension file that I have for Andrew J. Stephens. His pension packet is relatively small – only 8 pages. When I ordered it, I was hoping to find that this was my GGG-grandfather, but instead found that this was another Andrew who had married my GG-Grandmother, Victoria Coffey. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out who the parents of this “other” Andrew Stephens were, but I can find no family with an Andrew Stephens of the correct age.

When I read the file, I was disappointed to see that “other” Andrew had deserted from one regiment to join another. His file indicated that he was home on a 48 hour furlough and his regiment received orders to move on before his furlough was over, therefore, he joined another regiment.

I noticed that in my file, I had 2 versions of the Index Card for Andrew – one from Ancestry and one from Footnote. The cards were different and the Footnote card had a note on the bottom to see the file for Elias Smith – who was the first husband of Victoria Coffey. The 2 different cards made me wonder if there was information on Footnote that wasn’t on Ancestry. When I was comparing the available files on each site, I discovered that there were 2 listings on Ancestry for Andrew J. Stephens. At first, I attributed this to Andrew being in 2 different regiments, but then I realized that the enlistment dates were so close together – one in July and one in August – and that pushed me to look a little further.

The first thing I realized was that both listings were for the 13th Kentucky Cav, but one was Company C and the other was Company G. This caught my attention because in the pension file, Andrew had deserted from Co. G of the 19th Kentucky Infantry. What?? Infantry? More confusion! Could I find records for THIS information? One man was 24 years old and joined in Pulaski Co and the other was 19 years old and joined in Adair Co. Footnote has SOME pension files scanned and put on their site, but no records for either Andrew yet. So what could I find? What I found was another index card for Andrew J. Stephens that shows he was in Co. G of the 19th Kentucky Infantry AND Co. G of the 13th Kentucky Cav. And the certificate number on this card was different from the pension file that I have.

While I couldn’t find the pension file online, I COULD find the service records, so I spent alot of time downloading every card for Andrew Stephens from all 3 units. As I read the cards, I noticed that there was a card for the Co. C 13th KY Cav Andrew that stated that “The notations of February 28, 1887 and March 2, 1894, are canceled for the reason that this man is not identical with the Andrew J. Stephens who deserted from Company G, 19 Kentucky Infantry.” INTERESTING! This is the man who I DO have the pension file for. Why wouldn’t that be included in his file? And who is the other man? In my mind, I’ve been thinking that these might end up being the same way after all, but when I line up the dates on the cards, the men would have had to have been in 2 places at once, so they are definitely 2 different men.

What else can I glean from these card?. I’m hopeful, but not very confident that “Co G” Andrew is “my” Andrew. But his cards have a date of death at the bottom that says June 27, 1928. My Andrew died in 1920, but his wife Lucy died 14 June, 1928. Could the given date of death be the date of HER death? There is no indication that a Widow’s pension was requested, only an invalid pension, so would there be a reason to have HER date of death? I wish I knew more about these records! If this isn’t “my” Andrew, who is it? ANOTHER Andrew???

Here’s a brief summary of what I know from the cards (I can’t get this to line up on the page like I want…)

My first inclination is to ORDER THE FILE NOW! But I can’t afford that right now. So come on Footnote! Scan those files! I have found the pension file for Welcome Stephens who had “my” Andrew J. Stephens (Welcome’s uncle) and his wife, Lucy, as the witnesses to prove the birth dates for Welcome’s children, so I feel like the records for my area of Kentucky are just sitting on a desk waiting to be scanned any day now! It can’t be soon enough!